Jackie's Birthday & The Typhoon Lounge (& Stanton Moore)

So January 2^nd was Jackie Bateman’s birthday and last day here in NYC. We had dinner at one of the neatest little places off St. Mark’s Place downtown in the Village. It is called the Typhoon Lounge. It is officially located at 79 St. Marks Place, New York New York 1003-7955. Phone is (866) 906-1280.

My friend Ned had picked out the place and took us down St. Mark’s to Typhoon. Walking down a few steps to reach the front door, you open the door and have to push aside some weird curtain that is really just a shower curtain on a shower rod and everything. Rings and all. Very very stange. ANd it was not sparkling new either.

Walking three feet into the restaurant the décor immediately changed into this beautiful fun medival feel. In the wall were carved booths made out of stone and looked almost like we should have been in some medieval tavern. I felt like there was an Aztec vibe going on within the Asian flair. It did not feel like a traditional Japanese restaurant until we were escorted downstairs. This is where we all fell in love with the place.

There were little rooms off the main floor that were like makeshift Japanese dinging rooms. The rooms were raised off the floor and had a traditional kneel-at table inside that was made out of a nice large piece of wood.

We explained that it was Jackie’s birthday and got escorted into the second of the tiny rooms. We had to take off our shoes and were seated around the table like an official Japanese family might do. We all had on our socks and out shoes had to rest on the floor outside. We crowded into the little room around the table. Note: Unless you have 6 people, they do not encourage you using those rooms. Since it was Jackie’s Birthday we talked out way into it!!! It is best to go with a big group and reserve a private room downstairs.

Ned did all the ordering and we tried to keep it under $100 for the four of us. Ned ordered an assortment of foods. Everything came out one dish after the other and we shared it all. The first dish to arrive was a dish called Buta-Kimchi. This dish consists of thinly sliced pork (buta) and spicy Korean pickled cabbage (kimchi). That was just delicious and the portion, even though split between 4 of us, gave us each a healthy taste of the dish.

The second dish that came out was the Okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is prepared much like a pancake. The batter and other ingredients are fried on both sides on either a hot plate or a pan using metal that are later used to slice the dish when it has finished cooking. Cooked okonomiyaki is topped with ingredients that include okonomiyaki sauce (similar to Worcestershire sauce but thicker and sweeter), nori, fish flakes, mayonnaise and ginger. Our dish was prepared this way.

While we were eating these lovely dishes, our serving of Edamame came out. Edamame is consumed as a snack, a vegetable dish, used in soups or processed into sweets. As a snack, the pods are lightly boiled in salted water, and then the seeds are squeezed directly from the pods into the mouth with the fingers. These are just steamed soy beans. LOVE THEM!!!

The third dish Ned ordered was a Curry Rice dish. This was simply white sticky rice on a side of the plate with a brown sauce with what I gathered was a beaten egg in the mix of the sauce. It was like the sauce was covering scrambled eggs but the dish was AWESOME!!

Finally we got an order sashimi and sushi. The sashimi ($6.00) brought a healthy variety of fresh fish pieces, generously sized and priced at about $1 a piece. The sushi contained a 6 piece tuna roll with four pieces of fish over rice. The fish were salmon, yellow tail, tuna and something else. We also ordered Sake and a Japanese beer called Kirin. The sake came in a round glass that was set inside a wooden red box. You picked up the box to drink the sake. This place is cheap and delicious for those who care for a nice piece of sushi or sashimi.

Here are some other suggestions if you ever want to try the place out: Chicken kara-age (amazing fried chicken, but be careful of the hot sauce), miso kalbi (beef slices cooked with miso), Saikoro steak (cubes of steak with a great sauce on the side and potatoes), omu-rice (kind of like a rice omelette, hence omelette-rice = omu-rice), korokke (potato croquettes), okonomiyaki (Japanese savory pancake, but you might want to ask them to hold the katsuo-bushi -- dried bonito flakes).

The prices were great. Everything was around $6.00 - $10.00. The restaurant is very affordable especially considering how incredibly fresh the food is. If you want top-notch sushi and don't want to pay ridiculous prices, this is your place. And do not expect a Americanized version of Asian food. This restaurant caters to mainly Asian clientele so that should tell you how great and authentic the food really is!

The service was whatever. When I am with friends, as long as the wait staff keeps up on our beer supply, I generally don’t mind the waiting. However, we had a decent server who stayed on top of our alcohol level as well as our spills caused by the alcohol consumption. The primarily Japanese wait staff is pretty good at leaving you alone. Because they're from Japan this may be partially attributed to the fact that they're used to being called when needed.

Leaving, I was noticed men playing an odd game of what looked like Japanese checkers? They were like mahjong tiles but on a checker board or maybe even a chess board. I couldn’t tell. And the bar to the left was stoked will all kinds of hot and cold sake. For those who enjoy that kind of drink. Then it was back to pushing aside that WEIRD ASS shower curtain. I mean the thing was old and moldy looking. It was one of those weird clear colors that look foggy with white circles on it. What the HELL was that about? I still can’t get over it. Other then that damn strange curtain, the place is awesome: amazing food, great atmosphere, great Japanese beer and hot and cold options of sake.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WHO LOVES THE DRUMS!!!! I LOVE THE DRUMS!!!!

Stanton Moore, a founding member of the popular “steamroller funk” band Galatic, is a phenomenal jazz drummer. His has three CD’s, my favorite of which is called “Flyin’ the Koop” and I would recommend it highly that everyone go buy this CD.

Flyin’ the Koop is his second solo album. On this CD Moore plays with a all-star cast of groove-minded musicians, featuring bassist Chris Wood (Medeski Martin & Wood), saxophonist Karl Denson (co-founder of seminal acid jazz band the Greyboy Allstars and leader of his own band Tiny Universe), and guitarist Brian Seeger (New Orleans luminary and a member of Moore & More).

Moore also includes saxophonist Skerik and the vocal magic of the Wild Magnolias Mardi Gras Indians on "Fallin' off the Floor." The 12-track collection is groove-driven, jazz-informed, and stylistically eclectic, with tunes ranging from rhythmic cookers to straight-ahead jazz launches, from melodic beauties to raunchy funk-rompers.

There is an eclectic variety of sound in this CD. It is jazz music and drumming at its best and I hope even one person reading this actually buys the CD.

As well, with his deeply imbedded jazz roots, Moore has surprised everyone by drumming on the latest record by heavy metal band Corrosion of Conformity. He toured with them for a while until Hurricane Katrinia. The tour was cut short so that a member of the band could return to New Orleans and look after his bar.

Finally, Stanton Moore is part of another wonderful side project, a CD which I have had to buy three times because I wore it out. I have since downloaded it so that I may never have to worry about not having this genius group at my fingertips. Garage A Trios is a way out project from the fearsome threesome that Moore brought together on his first CD All Kooked Out! (Stanton Moore, Charlie Hunter, Skerik). “Club-ready but sample-free tracks take you back to the new school in dubbed-out style. Their live shows are legendary, and are often the hottest tickets at JazzFest.”

There is just too much great music in the world.